


What Will I Draw on Tomorrow?

by loveandallthat



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Future Fic, Getting Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-12-05 15:42:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11581119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loveandallthat/pseuds/loveandallthat
Summary: Dex and Nursey didn't necessarily fight or fall out of touch, but the progression of their relationship has no doubt been interrupted by their graduation and subsequent separation. Dex is confronted with the intensity of his desire to change this fact. And they'd both do basically anything for Chowder.For NurseyDex week day 7: Future.





	What Will I Draw on Tomorrow?

**Author's Note:**

> I know two years isn't THAT much into the future. But it's how far out I am from college so that's fun, right?
> 
> The title is a weird bastardization of a translated line from Complication by ROOKiEZ is PUNK'D. Yes, from Durarara!! Honorable mention goes to the line, "Fearing a tomorrow where I embrace the anxiety that everything's about to shatter; And looking only at the day after tomorrow won't bring me an answer--I know that."
> 
> Granted the translation is halfway decent, I mean.
> 
> I'm sad this week has come to an end, but what a good kick in the ass it was for me to write again! And also read again, and remember the great parts about this fandom.

Will gets several job offers from a career fair at Samwell. They’re all in Boston.

He tries not to complain about this problem; being able to select your job is a privilege. He worked for it, sure, but a lot of other people worked really hard and weren’t in his position.

It’s also true that he could keep trying to apply for jobs in other places if he wants to go back to Maine, or go to California or New York--for example. In reality, with his grades, his major, and his work experience, he has a pretty good shot.

But the certainty of the offers is too good to pass up. Besides, Shitty and Lardo are still in Boston, and Jack and Bitty are in Providence. The SMH team will still be at Samwell. It’s not like he has nobody around. So he picks the one for his top choice company, even though the pay is a little lower. It’s still much more than he’s ever had.

And suddenly he’s celebrating his two-year work anniversary, and he can barely trace his current life back to its origins.

His coworkers have lunch brought in and it’s nice, cute, and the food attracts other people from departments they don’t interact with much--well, IT tries not to interact too much with anyone, in general. People tend to be using them to bump their technical support tickets higher in the system queue.

And after work that day, his boss takes his team out for drinks, and he has too many.

“Hey,” says Steve, “if this is your two-year anniversary here, that means it’s a little over two years since you graduated from college!”

“Yep,” Will says. “Good math.”

It’s not significant to deflect. “What about your college friends, man? Aren’t they in the area?”

“Yeah, some of them. I still see them.”

It’s true, even. Shitty and Lardo make time for him more often than he would have expected, and it’s a pleasant surprise. They weren’t particularly intimate friends, so Will kind of imagined it sort of fading out, and he’s pretty glad to be wrong. Especially considering how busy they both are, since Shitty hasn’t risen through the rankings yet (though of course, neither has Will) and Lardo spends a lot of time working on promoting her own work, something that seems incredibly exhausting to Will, though he’s seen how much it can be worth it when her work is shown somewhere.

Bitty is great at keeping in touch. Will had kind of imagined a future where Bitty was too distracted by Jack, and baking, and his vlog, and just life in general to even think about any of the younger members of the team except Chris. But Bitty may be the person from the team he sees most often, because Bitty has a tendency to invite people over, and Will has a tendency to say yes. Sometimes Jack is there and it’s been long enough since he’s seen him that Will is a little starstruck. He tries to play it off, though. It’s always in the back of his mind that he sees Jack Zimmermann a lot more frequently and a lot more personally than most people.

He thinks about that now, too, as they ask him about his college friends, but bringing up Jack is firmly in his “things not to do” column in his brain.

Will has also talked to Chris, at least via text, literally every day since they graduated. He’s so grateful sometimes it overwhelms him, even though they’ve only seen each other once, when Chris came to visit everyone, but especially Bitty, Will, and Derek.

“Good, good,” Steve is saying. “I don’t talk to any of my college buddies… I wonder what they’re up to?”

Will hums. He doesn’t particularly care about Steve’s college friends, no offense, but the bar they’re at is playing decent music and he’s pleasantly buzzed, so he doesn’t mind.

“But you,” Steve says. Oh, no, Will thinks. “You must have had some good romance in college. Any girls still around?”

That’s awkward, Will thinks. Clearly they’re not at Samwell anymore, where heteronormativity was abnormal. Not unheard of, but certainly uncommon.

He curses the time, a little over two years ago, just before graduation, when he and Chris were much, much drunker than Will is right now. When he’d sort of unloaded a lot of his fears for the future, how he wanted to help his family even though he knew they wouldn’t want to accept it, how his job wasn’t his passion, just the first steady thing to come along when he needed it. That being away from Chris (and, begrudgingly, Derek) meant being away from some of the most honest friendships he’d ever had, and he wasn’t sure that he could handle losing that now that he knew what it was like.

He’d said all that and Chris had hugged him fiercely, told him that he had his own fears about the future, too, some of them incredibly similar. That he worried about losing touch with Will and Derek, or that being back in California with Caitlin full time would mean losing what brought them together in Massachusetts, and that maybe they were just a college romance. But that if all of them wanted to remain friends, they would be able to do it, because all it takes is effort on each person’s part.

Will regrets this now, because that’s when he promised to be honest whenever he could, when he realized that he had no more time for posturing or lying except where absolutely necessary.

“There was a guy… or, there was almost a guy. But nothing  _ really  _ happened, and then I moved here, and he went back home to New York.” Will looks at Steve to gauge his reaction, grateful that the rest of their group is still playing pool behind them.

“What?” Steve sputters. “That’s not even that far! And you didn’t try to see each other again?”

“It was too weird. I mean, we were friends, sort of. How do you say, hey, let’s travel for over four hours just to meet up and see how it goes?”

“First of all,” Steve says, with a swirling hand gesture that makes Will realize he’s pretty drunk already, “you meet halfway. Second, you say hey, we’re friends, let’s hang out! And then you see how it goes. You don’t even have to  _ say  _ that part, just do it.”

“Yeah,” Will says, “in hindsight. Anyway, we saw each other last year and nothing happened.”

“Alone?”

“Well, no.”

Steve just looks at him, but to be fair, Will already knows what that look means; he’s been thinking it for a year. Of course they should have talked to each other.

“Yeah, yeah,” he complains. “I know already.”

\---

It wasn’t even that awkward when Chris came to visit. At first he was going to stay at the Haus, since they still knew a lot of the team members who were living there, but when Jack directly invited him to his Providence apartment, in the group text (the smaller group text, the one that used to be just “the frogs” and Bitty, until he asked if he could add Jack), it was hard to say no. Will and Derek were invited, too, even to stay the night if they wanted. There was only one guest room, but there were two couches. Will had declined, worried he’d be overstepping, and Derek had said the same after, even though his return journey was much longer.

They stayed really late, and to this day Will is suspicious that Derek got himself a hotel room rather than travel home or stay with Jack.

They stayed really late, and Will and Derek sat next to each other before dinner, during dinner, and then back at Jack’s--beautiful--place, and they participated in the conversation. They looked each other in the eye and talked about their current lives, joked about the past.

Nobody mentioned the last night before graduation, where Will and Derek had stayed up all night, talking low and close, closer than Will usually was to anybody for more than a moment. When Derek had brought up the fact that they were no longer fighting with each other, and Will had been thinking the same thing, and how they had developed a rather painful knowledge that they were both just struggling to keep their feelings safe. OK, so they didn’t phrase it exactly like that, but Will knows what they meant.

Nobody mentioned one soft kiss.

To be fair, nobody else knew about that.

\---

It’s not like it suddenly starts bothering Will after a long time of him not thinking about it. He’s been thinking about Derek this whole time, which honestly might be a little sad. But it’s like someone turned up the heat from low to medium and now he can’t dismiss it as easily.

Derek was single the last time they talked, and their smaller group chat and the larger SMH one are both still active, and there’s been nothing that made it seem like there was a change in that status.

Nothing will change if Will doesn’t do anything.

It’s Saturday, and if Will were of a mind, he could pretty easily be in New York by the evening. But that’s too much, and there’s no way he can convince himself to do that. Know your limits, he reminds himself.

So he calls instead.

“Dex?”

“Hey, Nursey. How, uh, how are things?”

“Things are good, you?”

“Celebrating two years at my job, actually.”

“Oh, congrats.”

There’s an awkward pause.

“Thanks. So, um, I was wondering what you’re doing next weekend?”

Another pause, like Derek’s thinking about it. “Nothing special.”

“Do you want to get together, maybe?”

“Sure,” Derek answers, clearly hesitant and confused. Which is fine; so is Will, honestly, and he’s steering this ship. “Are you going to be in Manhattan?”

Oh, that would have made sense. Will’s company actually does go there sometimes, but he’s managed to take time off every time to avoid it. For reasons that don’t need to be identified, even if Steve might be piecing them together. And it would sort of explain why he’s calling--part of the reason he avoided going is because he knew that he’d feel too weird, too guilty being in New York and not telling Derek, and so he would.

“Yes,” Will says, surprising himself. It’s not a lie, especially if he can avoid talking about why he’s going to be there, which is obviously purely to see Derek.

“Chill,” Derek says, and Will laughs that he still has that habit. “Do you have a place in mind? Or if you tell me what neighborhood, I can pick a place.”

“Pick anywhere,” Will says. “I’ll get there. Say… 2:00?”

“2:00,” Derek says, and Will rolls his eyes, smiling. “I’ll text you the place.”

They hang up, and Will panics. Eventually, he eats dinner, panicking, and gets through the rest of the workweek panicking.

\---

Will gets to the little Italian restaurant at 1:30 and thinks about how long he has to wait. It’s completely his own fault, but he still wants someone to curse for it.

But he only waits fifteen minutes before he hears, “I figured you’d be early.”

Derek is here, fifteen minutes early, just on the assumption that Will would be early.

“Hey,” Will says, and stands. He takes a half step forward, then stops himself. Are they people who hug? They hugged last time, at Jack’s. He finishes crossing the distance and puts his arms around Derek, pats his back and lets go. They’re both a little slimmer than they were before, but that only makes sense.

“Let’s go in,” Derek says, and they do. “I don’t know about you, but I haven’t eaten anything yet. This place has good drinks too, so if that’s all you were planning, I will completely happily get some wine with my pasta so you don’t have to drink alone. But the part where I eat is non-negotiable.”

Will smiles before he even thinks about it. “It’s fine; I haven’t really eaten much today, either.” It’s true, but he’s probably still way too nervous to eat any real amount of food. They both get drinks. Derek spends time deciding between two different food options, and as soon as he orders, Will picks the one that he didn’t get. Derek smirks at him.

“You’re putting a lot of faith in me, letting me pick the restaurant and the food.”

He’s putting a lot of faith in Derek, in general.

“I was pretty sure I could count on you.”

It’s obviously the small talk portion of the afternoon, and Derek starts. “So, what brings you here?”

He starts with the one thing that’s pretty likely to lead them straight out of small talk. Damn that honesty promise.

“I’m here to see you,” Will says.

Derek doesn’t actually look that surprised. “I’m glad you called,” he says. It’s not quite a non-sequitur, but it feels like one; it also feels heavy.

Will nods. “It’s been a year.”

“Two years, since…” Derek trails off.

“Yeah, since graduation. And.”

“And,” Derek agrees.

“I’m sorry we didn’t talk about it earlier,” Will says, because it’s true, and he can’t help but say it.

“Me too.”

They leave it at that, taking awkward sips of their drinks until the food arrives. Their dishes are brought out with wine pairings, which Will knows had to be asked for special, so Derek must have done something sneaky. He drinks it anyway.

They stray back to safer topics, first the food, and then Chris, even though they both talk to him all the time and don’t need to update each other. That makes Will feel warm inside--well, that and the wine. He tells Derek more about Bitty and Jack since he sees them a little more often, but Derek and Shitty are still in contact more, so Will hears about him and Lardo.

Will’s only halfway through talking about the rest of the Samwell Men’s Hockey team members he still has tabs on before he gets bored of the information exchange, and also becomes much too full to eat the rest of his meal. They’ve both slowed down at this point.

“Dessert?” Derek suggests.

“Oh, sure,” Will answers, though he can’t imagine putting more food in his mouth. It might take a while, anyway. They get lemon cake and tiramisu and split them both halfway, though it obviously makes it look like a date. Which it might be.

“Do you have to get back tonight?”

Will looks up at the question. “No,” he says. He didn’t plan a return trip.

“Come back to mine?”

“Sure.”

\---

Derek’s apartment is a little small, but in a nice, cute area. Will tells him, in the cab, that he has no problem with the subway, but he just says, “Next time,” waving his hand vaguely.

“Drink?” Derek offers.

Will laughs, loosely enough that it’s probably obvious that he doesn’t need any more. Derek gets both of them water and sits down next to Will on the sofa, though there’s plenty of places to sit.

“So,” Derek says. “Did you call me after two years and a vague, unfinished night to go with me on a date and then belatedly reject me?”

“Is it possible to reject someone who might no longer be interested?”

“Moot point,” Derek says. “Irrelevant. Not the current situation.”

He’s always been brave, Will thinks. Maybe it’s obvious enough that Will’s here, trying to start something. No, not quite obvious enough.

Will moves closer on the sofa and turns so their knees touch, reaching his hand to the far side of Derek’s face to turn them so they were facing each other more directly. Derek leans into the touch, just slightly, but it makes Will’s heart skip a beat anyway. He covers Will’s hand with his own.

“So, not a rejection, then?”

Will kisses him, absolutely can’t resist it. Derek opens up almost immediately, and it’s such a relief to know that they both can’t hold back. Will feels himself being straddled, then turned enough that he was able to be pushed on his back, and he was more than happy to cooperate, lifting his other hand to bring it to Derek’s waist. He quickly gets distracted touching, tracing from his abs to his back, using pressure on his lower back to encourage him to rest more weight on Will, to bring them fully horizontal. He moans into the kiss when his efforts are successful, then gets both of his hands on Derek’s ass at the same time, having spent an entire evening trying to avoid thinking about those ridiculous, amazing pants.

They break apart to breathe, and to stare at each other. Derek leads him to the bedroom.

\---

“How are we going to do this?” Will asks the next morning, when he’s resting on his side, staring at Derek who, to be fair, is shirtless and distracting.

“My publisher doesn’t actually need to see me that often, and all the freelance I do is online,” Derek says. “But I don’t want to leave for good,” he admits.

“We have an office in New York, and my boss has been trying to get a member of our time to do half time in each office,” Will says, trying to sound like he’s only just thought of it, even though it’s something that’s been distracting him for the past six months.

“Are you proposing that we follow each other around between Boston and New York for the rest of our lives?” Derek asks, but he’s already grinning.

“I could probably transfer in a few years. Or get a new job. Or we could give up on the east coast and move to California because I still fucking miss Chowder every day.”

Derek laughs, sounding surprised. “You’re planning really far ahead,” he comments, sounding light and amused. “Also, yes, I’d completely ditch everything else I love to go live close to Chowder. In a heartbeat. Honestly, I almost want that to be our immediate plan.”

“I don’t think we’re cut out for the west coast,” Will says.

“Then we have two years to talk Chowder into moving out here,” Derek replies, decisively.

“We’ll remind him about Bitty and Jack.”

“Perfect.”

Will throws an arm and a leg over Derek and moves close enough to hide his face in his neck. “Yeah,” he agrees. “Perfect.”

**Author's Note:**

> So here’s my dilemma. The person who makes the effort to get things started again. Should they be commended for putting forth the effort? Or do we criticize them for thinking that the timing is up to them? Somewhere in the middle, probably. Good on you / shame on you, Dex!
> 
> Also, like, it entered my head to make this an OOPS TOO LATE fic where Nursey was already with someone else and Will just visited them and then went home. Oh, brain, you’re so mean.
> 
> Thank you for all the lovely comments on [my day 1 fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11523792), [my day 2 fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11534277), [my day 3 fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11543352), [my day 4 fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11552652), and [my days 5 and 6 fic](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11561931).
> 
> Please comment anything! Especially criticism. Even if it's not constructive. But also any thoughts are accepted, tangential ones included.
> 
> on tumblr as [loveandallthat](http://loveandallthat.tumblr.com/)


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